In general, protection devices may be needed in semiconductor technology to provide protection against electrostatic discharge (ESD). Diodes, transistors, and/or thyristors may be used in conventional protection devices. ESD concepts may be provided on laterally integrated devices as well as on vertically integrated devices. Several test and simulation methods can be used for testing the susceptibility of an electronic device to ESD. The so called Human Body Model (HBM) may be used for testing ESD generated from human contact. Other ESD test models may be the Machine Model (MM), the System Level Model and the Charged-Device Model. The test may include discharging a charged capacitor through a resistor into an electrical terminal of the device under test. The test may be carried out according to the several commonly used ESD testing standards, as for example JEDEC 22-A114-B; IEC/EN 61000-4-2, ISO 10605, MIL-STD-883 Method 3015, and the ESD Association's ESD STM5.1. The ESD testing standards respectively specify a capacitance of the capacitor (e.g. 100 pF or 150 pF) and a resistance of the resistor (e.g. 1500Ω or 330Ω) used for testing the devices. However, other tests referring to similar standards may be applied.